Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
RYDER
T wo of my brothers are asking for a death wish. I glare at Jake as he takes my place with Ryland. He has the balls to grin at me before sitting on the steps to play. I dive down and swim over to Eve, stopping when I’m near her. Breaking the surface, I stand up inches away from her. You can cut the tension with a knife with our bodies this close together. Her chest rises and falls as my eyes skim over her body again in the suit.
I wasn’t prepared for how I felt when I first saw her in it. I knew her body was still fucking amazing when I saw her in the shower, but to see it in broad daylight is something else entirely. I immediately wanted to claim her as mine and remind my brothers who the fuck she belongs to. I know Jake and Miles love her as a sister and are just messing with me, but it doesn’t stop the jealousy I feel when I see her blush from their compliments.
I hear Max laugh behind me as he and Sophia playfully battle it out. This isn’t the first time Eve and I have played this game with my brothers. We were a good team back then, and all our pool days would end with me sneaking her into my childhood bedroom and celebrating our victory.
I walk around and stand behind her. “Let’s see if we still got it,” I lean over and whisper in her ear. The game is all fun, but my brothers and I are still competitive as fuck in anything we do. I step closer and regret it the moment her ass presses against me. I hear a small moan escape her lips as she feels how hard I am, causing the wind to be knocked out of me from the contact. I step back to rein in the feral thoughts running through my head.
Sinking down in the water, it’s as if my hand has a mind of its own. I’m palming her ass before I can stop myself. I close my eyes briefly and swallow hard before going under and bringing her up on my shoulders.
My hands find her bare thighs as I feel her fingers weave into my hair. This was a bad idea. I should have just let Jake do it and dealt with seeing his hands on her. I’m not ready to let her back in again, even though my body is screaming at me to take back what was mine.
Eve laughs as we get closer to the others and starts gently battling Max. She fake falls off my shoulder, giving him the victory before I bring her back up. The girls battle it out while Travis and I try to outmaneuver each other. Sophia and Eve laugh as they both fall at the same time, ending in a tie.
I watch Eve swim over to Ryland and scoop her up before slathering her with kisses. Ryland belly laughs, causing me to smile. Seeing the two of them together makes my heart beat fast against my chest.
“It’s the best feeling in the world, isn’t it,” Travis says softly. “Every time I see Sophia with Max, it’s like my heart is going to explode. It’s also the most terrifying,” he chuckles. “Your whole world is right in front of you, and there’s no guarantee that it won’t be taken from you.”
“How do you get past the fear?” I ask quietly. Eve hands Ryland her sippy cup, and she takes it with both hands, eager to have a sip of ice water.
“I don’t think you ever stop worrying, but you learn to live in the moment and enjoy every second.”
“I’m still so angry at the situation,” I admit. “I’m taking it out on her, and I don’t know how to stop. I’m…I’m scared to trust her again. She left once. How do I know she won’t do it again?”
“You don’t know, that’s the hard part. I know our situations are different, but take it from someone who held onto anger for years…it’s not worth it. It will eat at you until there’s nothing left. Have you told her how you feel?”
“Not in so many words,” I say frustratedly, running a hand through my wet hair. I think of our shower incident last night and how I couldn’t control my anger. What scares me the most is I held back. I want to do so much more.
“Give it a few days. A lot was thrown at you. The anger may eventually fade.”
“And if it doesn’t?” I watch Eve hand Ryland over to Miles. She laughs at something he says, and I want to roughly kiss that sweet sound from her lips. How can she be so happy right now when I feel like I’m drowning?
“You either punch the hell out of a punching bag for five years like I did, or you lay it all out on the table for her. You’re hurting and angry about what happened, and she’s probably feeling guilty as hell that she put you through it. You both will feel a hell of a lot better when you unload all those emotions and face them. When you’re ready, I’ve got Ryland. If the tension in your body is any indication,” he nods to my clenched fists at my side, “things are about to get real. Just remember, angry sex should always be followed up with makeup sex,” he grins at me and grabs my shoulder in a squeeze before walking over to Sophia.
Needing a minute, I lift myself out of the pool and grab a towel before walking into the main house. It’s lunchtime, so I decide to keep myself busy by pulling out the subs and fruit for everyone. Ryland will need to eat before her afternoon nap, so I start to cut up some strawberries for her.
“Need any help?” I glance up and see Eve standing there. There goes my minute to think. Whenever she’s near me, my thoughts go straight to a one-way ticket to hell, where I’ve been living for the past three years.
“Sure,” I say, my voice sounding tense. “I was just getting lunch ready for everyone. You can help me with what Ryland likes.” I stab a strawberry and cut it up more aggressively than the fruit deserves.
“Okay,” she says as she watches my movements. I know she senses my mood. We’ve always been good at reading one another. She gets one of the paper plates and starts to break apart a sub, putting small bites of lunch meat and cheese on it. Leaning around me, she takes a watermelon slice off the platter. Her breast grazes my chest, and I grip the knife tightly. She smells like strawberries with a hint of coconut from the sunscreen.
I relax my grip and start cutting up more fruit. My lungs squeeze painfully as they try to get air back into them. I remind myself to breathe and take a forced breath. When she takes a bite of a strawberry, and a slight moan escapes her body, my knife clatters to the countertop. I meet her eyes, and they widen when they see the blaze in mine. She swallows the strawberry, and I watch some juice gather at the corner of her mouth. When her tongue comes out to swipe it, I roughly grab the back of her head and get to it first, savoring the taste of the sweet fruit on her lips.
I walk us back until she hits the fridge. My tongue claims her mouth as I suck and devour. I pinch her nipple hard through the swimsuit fabric, and she cries out against my lips. “Are you fucking wet for me right now, Eve? Have you been thinking about my cock being inside you all day like I have been?” She moans against my lips as I press my swollen dick hard into her stomach.
I push her swimsuit to the side and shove two fingers in. I growl when I find her soaking for me.
“Have you missed my hands on you?” I work her with my fingers just how she likes it. I hear her whimper as I suck her neck hard. “No one knows this body like I do, Eve. No one.” My voice is low and dangerously dark. “I was the first one to ever make you cum. I’m the only one who will EVER make you cum.” I tease her clit, knowing she’s close.
“It’s always been you,” she pants and grinds against me. I remove my hand and suck my fingers clean. Her breaths are shallow as she stares at me. Her blue eyes are clouded with desire before confusion takes over.
“I could make you cum right now with one touch, but I think I’m going to wait. I craved you for three fucking years. I want you to feel what I felt every second of every day since you left.”
She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. “I did feel what you felt. You have no idea how bad I missed you. All I wanted was to come back to you.”
“And I do know. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here with your arousal coating my tongue, and I damn sure wouldn’t have fucked you in my shower last night.”
“Then why do this?”
Truthfully, I have no clue why I’m doing this, but I do know it feels good to know she’s just as frustrated and uncomfortable as I am right now.
“Because right now, I have this need to punish you for leaving me,” I admit to her. “I know deep down that it’s not your fault, but the need is still there. If I could turn you over my knee and spank you right now, I would.” I see her eyes widen before something else flashes in the depths of those blues. Her cheeks get a nice pink to them, and I can tell she’s turned on by what I just said. My dick strains against my boardshorts, and I catch her glancing down before meeting my eyes again.
“Then do it. What are you waiting for?” She challenges me and holds my gaze.
“Now, where’s the fun in that?” I smirk, stepping closer to her and putting my hands on the fridge to block her in. “No, I think I’m going to draw this out just a bit more. I want you thinking about what I want to do to you. I want your body craving me so badly that by the time my hand reddens that perfect ass of yours, you will cum so hard that you will never, EVER think twice about leaving me again. I will own you just like you own me.”
Her chest rises and falls faster. I watch a nice shade of red darken her cheeks. This is exactly what I need. I’ll turn this anger into pleasure for both of us and finally be free from the chains that wrapped around me the moment I came home to an empty apartment. I give her a devilish grin before turning and grabbing the trays, leaving her wet and wanting what she will never walk away from again.
I pull into the storage unit and get out of Travis’s truck. I’m going to have to make some calls tomorrow about getting another vehicle. The car I have is great for date nights and when I’m by myself, but I have a family now. A car without a backseat isn’t going to work. I need something safer and with more room for my daughter. Luckily, I have a lot of connections in the car industry and should be able to have one delivered quickly.
I find my storage number and unlock the garage door, lifting it up. Everything from Eve and I’s apartment stares back at me. After months of sitting in our place, hoping she would come back, I finally let my brothers talk me into moving and getting out of a place that was slowly suffocating me. I still couldn’t get rid of anything, so I put everything in a storage unit so I didn’t have to look at it anymore.
I walk around and look through the boxes, trying to find what I’m looking for. I stop when I see the drawings Travis made us. He gave them to us the week we moved in. My fingers trace the glass over Eve’s face. She has her head on my chest, and we are both wrapped around each other, grinning like idiots. Her eyes shine brightly, matching the love and happiness in mine. Travis has always been good at making you feel everything when you look at one of his portraits, and this one has me in a chokehold. Never in a million years did I think a year later that she would be ripped out of my life. I rub the tattoo over my chest to ease the ache in my heart that’s starting to form.
I quickly put the picture back and find the boxes I’m looking for. I load them up into the back of the truck and decide to stop by work real quick to see how it held up without me there for two days. I’ve never been away for two days, so I’m afraid of what my office is going to look like.
The waiting room and garage look nice at least as I walk through and check on things. The guys cleaned up after themselves and put everything away for the night, the way I like it. We work on cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, some worth millions. I want the workspace to reflect this. When clients come in to inspect us, I want them to be impressed with the gleaming surfaces and high-tech tools we use. If you want to work on high-end cars, you need to look high-end.
My desk, on the other hand, makes me grimace when I see all the Post-its and invoices scattered about. God, I really hope some of the interviews I have lined up this week pan out. Unfortunately, there are only two, and I’m not holding my breath with the resumes I’m seeing. I hope one of them can win me over in person.
I sit down at my desk and scan through the messages the guys left, putting the priorities on top to deal with tomorrow. I open my MacBook and check my emails. I reply to a few from new clients wanting to do business before scanning through the rest.
My eyes spot a new response to the ad I put on Blue Haven’s website. I click on the resume and quickly read it. Sitting up straighter, I grin when I see her experience. She may be overqualified with her business degree, but I’m willing to pay her anything at this point if she’s as good in person as she is on paper. I’m desperate, and now that Eve and Ryland are here, I don’t want to be stuck doing late-night office work just to keep my head above water.
Mercedes Rhodes. I laugh at the irony of her working in an office for cars. I don’t see a number to call, but I shoot a quick email over asking her if Tuesday at eleven would work for an interview. That will give me a day to clean up this mess so I don’t scare her off right away. I put it before my other two interviews because if this one goes like I want it to, there won’t be a need for them. I hit send and pray for the best. I have a good feeling about this one. This could be the one I’ve been waiting for.